History of rail transport in Thailand
History of State Railway of Thailand Main: Royal State Railways of Siam and State Railway of Thailand Interest in rail transport in Thailand can be traced to when King Rama IV was given a gift of a model railway from Queen Victoria. SRT was founded as the Royal State Railways of Siam (RSR) in 1890. Construction of the Bangkok-Ayutthaya railway (71 km), the first part of the Northern Line, was started in 1891 and completed on May 23, 1892. The Thonburi-Phetchaburi line (150 km), later the Southern Line, was opened on June 19, 1903. The Northern Line was originally built as standard gauge, but in September 1919 it was decided to standardize on meter gauge and the Northern Line was regauged during the next ten years. On July 1, 1951, RSR changed its name to the present State Railway of Thailand. In 2005 SRT had 4,070 km of track, all of it meter gauge. Nearly all is single-track, although some important sections around Bangkok are double or triple-tracked and there are plans to extend this. Issues The SRT has long been popularly perceived by the public as inefficient and resistant to change. Trains are usually late, and most of its equipment is old and poorly maintained. The worst financially performing state enterprise, the SRT consistently operates at a loss despite being endowed with large amounts of property and receiving large government budgets; it reported a preliminary loss of 7.58 billion baht in 2010. Recurring government attempts at restructuring and/or privatization throughout the 2000s have always been strongly opposed by the union and have not made any progress. History of BTS Skytrain Main: BTS Skytrain Bangkok's first attempt at building an elevated rail network was the Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System, which was terminated in 1998 after only 10% had been completed. The BTS system (the elevated metro system owned by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration) was initially referred to as the Lavalin Skytrain because it was to be designed using the Vancouver SkyTrain as a model adopting the technology developed by SNC-Lavalin. Due to political interference, the concession with Lavalin was cancelled in 1992, in spite of Bangkok's chronic traffic congestion. The Thai Government focused on increasing road and expressway infrastructure in an attempt to combat congestion. However, this had less than the desired impact as the number of cars on the road increased dramatically. The lines considered under the skytrain projecthi babe became later the basis for the MRT system and are mainly underground. In the early 1990s, foundations for the Lavalin Skytrain were constructed in the middle of two bridges spanning the Chao Phraya river. The Taksin bridge now supports the Silom line to Thon Buri, completed in April 2009. The supports at Phra Pok Klao bridge remain unused but may be utilised as part of the MRT's future Purple Line. Shortly after it became clear that the Lavalin Skytrain was stalled, then-governor Major General Chamlong Srimuang asked his deputy Captain Kritsada Arunwong na Ayutthaya to create a new feeder system with a route along Sukhumvit and Silom Road. Krisda, who in the same period was elected governor, and his team from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) managed to find an investor to build it. Krisda also convinced all to let the city supervise the project. The investor founded Bangkok Transit System Corporation (BTSC) and this company successfully financed the system and grew it from a feeder system to a full mass transit project. Siemens as supplier of the railway technology and the Thai contractor Italian Thai Development built the system for BTSC. The "Skytrain" name was given later by the press. The Skytrain system was officially opened on 5 December 1999 by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. It initially had lower-than-predicted ridership, with 200,000 passenger trips per day. Ticket revenue was only enough to meet the trains' operating cost, and not sufficient to service construction loans. However, the Skytrain's daily passenger numbers have steadily increased since then. On 9 December 2005, more than 500,000 single trips were made on the Skytrain in a single day for the first time. As of September 2012, the Skytrain serves around 600,000 passengers on an average day, with a peak of 715,000, and is upgrading to a fleet of 35 four-car trains. The company implemented a contactless ticketing system in 2007 named 'BTS SmartPass', and plans to allow both BTS and Airport Link passengers to use their RFID smart cards as single ticketing system not before 2014. A one-ticket system for BTS and MRT will be expected by 2015. *5 Dec 1999: Sukhumvit Line: Mo Chit – On Nut; Silom Line: National Stadium – Saphan Taksin *15 May 2009: Silom Line: Saphan Taksin – Wong Wian Yai *12 Aug 2011: Sukhumvit Line: On Nut – Bearing *12 Jan 2013: Silom Line: Wong Wian Yai – Pho Nimit – Talat Phlu *5 Dec 2013: Silom Line; Wuttakat Rd; Bang Wa Terminus History of MRT Main: MRT (Bangkok) The MRT was constructed under a concession concept. For the first MRT line, officially known as Chaloem Ratchamongkhon or informally as the "MRT Blue Line", most civil infrastructure were provided by the government sector, Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), and handed over to their concessionaire under a 25-year concession agreement. Bangkok Metro Company Limited (BMCL) is the only private sector company that won a bid in MRTA's concession contract for the blue line. As MRTA's concessionaire, BMCL provides M&E equipment, including electrical trains, signalling systems, SCADA, communication, PSD, etc. for the subway project and fully operates the system. To maintain the system, BMCL has subcontracted in 10 years to Siemens which was the M&E system supplier since system opening and 7 years maintenance contract to two local maintenance services for north and south line. The construction of the first Bangkok Metro line, officially known as Chaloem Ratchamongkhon (Thai: สายเฉลิมรัชมงคล) – "Celebration of Royal Auspice" – or informally as the "Blue Line", began on 19 November 1996. The project suffered multiple delays not only because of the 1997 economic crisis, but also due to challenging civil engineering works of constructing massive underground structures deep in the water-logged soil upon which the city is built. MRT Blue Line was opened for a limited public trial period of several weeks starting on 13 April 2004. On 3 July 2004 the line was officially opened at 19:19 local time by HM King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit, who were accompanied by other members of the royal family. Within 30 minutes of its opening, sightseers filled the system to its maximum capacity, but after the initial rush ridership has settled down to around 180,000 riders daily — considerably lower than projections of over 400,000, despite fares being slashed in half from 12-38 baht to 10-15 baht per trip. From 2006 until 2008, fares ranged between 14-36 baht per trip. The fare was raised to 16-41 Baht on 1 January 2009. Current ridership (2012) stands at 240,000 on weekdays. Category:History of rail transport in Thailand Category:Thai Railway